It seems that we are approaching a critical juncture in the uncanny valley
as related to avatars. We may well be encroaching on the point where physical
world lessons on how to look become mandatory for avatars as well.

Quite recently, . So Karl MacDorman of Indiana University in Indianapolis,
Indiana, led a study to see how interaction with realistic avatars differed
when the participant was faced with an ethical dilemma. The full report from
that study can be found at the end of this article.

Quoting from the abstract:

"Simulated humans in computer interfaces are increasingly taking
on roles that were once reserved for real humans. The presentation of simulated
humans is affected by their appearance, motion quality, and interactivity.
These presentational factors can influence the decisions of those who interact
with them. This is of concern to interface designers and users alike, because
these decisions often have moral and ethical consequences. However, the
impact of presentational factors on decisions in ethical dilemmas has not
been explored.

This study is intended as a first effort toward filling this gap. In
a between-groups experiment, a female character presented participants with
an ethical dilemma. The character's human photorealism and motion quality
were varied to generate four stimulus conditions: real Human versus Computer-Generated
character × Fluid versus Jerky movement."

Interestingly, whilst the report has cast a great deal of light on several
behavioural tendencies in virtual environments, one of the most keenly noticeable
is the gender-bias. Female avatars being judged far more critically on their
appearance than male ones.

The study used a sample group of 682 individuals, all volunteers, to run through
the same scenarios.

The volunteer takes on the role of a consulting physician, who has to judge
between several directly competing ethical dilemmas. One of those scenarios
where there is no right or wrong answer, but it is up to the individual to find
a happy middle ground as best they can.

Two patients are in the program, Kelly and Paul Gordon, a married couple. Initially
the volunteer interacts with Kelly in a private session on the day before Paul
is to see the same physician. Kelly has contracted genital herpes, but does
not want the doctor to tell her husband this.

A difficult enough decision at the best of times. However, there is not a single
Kelly. Instead there are four of her. Two human women, two avatar women. One
of each is smoothly animated, the other is jerky with missing frames in the
interaction sequences. For control purposes all four Kellys were lip-synched
to the same actress voice.

A quarter of the volunteers were assigned to interact with each Kelly, and
the results observed.

Avatar and human Kelly for comparison.

The results of the study - whether or not the volunteer decided to tell Paul
of the condition - were then analysed according to which Kelly they had seen,
and differences in trend noted.

Interestingly enough, when the results were paired down again, this time by
gender of the volunteer, the strongest trends appeared. Again, taking a quote
from the study:

"Female participants were consistent in strongly favouring Kelly
across all stimulus conditions (51.8% selected "No-No" in the
CG Jerky condition, 50.0% in CG Fluid, 52.2% in Human Jerky, and 54.3% in
Human Fluid).

However, far fewer male participants strongly favoured Kelly in the
CG Jerky stimulus condition (31.2%) as compared to the CG Fluid (46.3%),
Human Jerky (53.0%), and Human Fluid (50.0%) stimulus conditions. CG Jerky
was, of course, the condition in which both Kelly's appearance and movement
were the least human. The differences is male and female decision patterns
were statistically significant overall."

Thus the evidence does suggest that human males cannot help but be swayed in
their argument by how a female looks. Everything else being equal, the appearance
of the visage before them matters. Far more so than it does for females.

One study that needs to be done following this, is to use a male avatar/human
instead of female, and see if the gender bias swings the other way as well.
The need for this is also noted in the study.

Still, with the data gathered so far, there is sufficient evidence to recommend
that female avatar interaction should be very careful to focus on appearance
in a business situation, something which is going to become more frequent as
integration with VR technologies progresses.